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World Building Session 04
Back to the Episode list. Adam is using the book The Metamorphica to roll the Aliens !Adams Youtube |- | |'Adams Twitch' |} Stream 4: I’m Not Saying It’s Aliens, But It’s Aliens What are Aliens? * Sentient entities. * Varabily “civilized” * Technologically capable. * Non-human, non-artificial. * A mix of the indigenous inhabitant of Acheron Rho and visitors thereto. * Capable of Psionics but not afflicted by MES * Variably biocompatible with humans. * Can we eat them? Some, probably. * Can we have sex with them? You can have sex with anything if you try hard enough. (Ewww gross) * Can we make hybrid babies? God no, but maybe? What are Aliens not? * Bumpy forehead humans - there might’ve been, but we sent them the way of the dodo. * Purely a metaphor (for anything) * In a position to threaten humanity or its dominance over the sector. * Capable of mounting a resistance or rebellion (all that was warlike we, the humans, wiped them out) * A major focus of the on-screen campaign. * [[Synthetic Humans|'Synthetic Humans']] * [[The Guild|'The Guild']] * Uplifted animals * Living in centralized alien cities, most planets with aliens are TL2 we bombed them back to the stone ages * We can not fully communicate with them, they may not have the ability to communicate with humans, or don’t recognize humans as intelligent, or we don’t recognize them as intelligent. * Are not able to survive childbirth the way humans do. They die or change dramatically. Aliens // Maybe House Vela, in their exploration age, found some alien planets, but were like “nah, let’s not put that on the charts”. Species 001 - (These things are horrible) Psychic Parasites. We see Species 001 and Species 002 as one. Biology * Form: Incorporeal or psychic form * Consume: other complex lifeforms * Natural Habitat: Parasites * Procreation: Genetic parasite / asexual reproduction * Reproductive Strategy: Cyclical, many offspring * Reproductive Method: Live young in an external incubator Lenses * Social: Subtlety & Hate Social Structure * Society is fractured, alternatively competing and cooperating * Lineages of organism / host relationships and also psychic lines, etc Technology & Place in the sector * Interstellar travel (TL4) * Advance Tech: Gastronomy (to cultivate emotions and memories on their hosts) * Underdeveloped Tech: Manufacturing Notes: * Humans probably don’t know they exist, or if they do, it’s a psychic secret or misrepresentation - maybe we think of * them as ghost or spirits or something as per local customs, etc. * They abhor humanity, and ultimately intend us to be destroyed or subjugated on some lengthy timeline * Have primarily host species, but can occupy any predominantly corporeal form except humans * They`re functionally immortal though they consume their host entirely once per breeding cycle, shed their offspring into other hosts * Suffering from a period of darkness, because humanity genocided their previous host species. (and they remember) * Communicate psychically, direct thought transmitting * Can exist for a time without a host but will slowly begin to die. Species 002 - (The Hosts for 001) Thought Eating Host Entities. We see Species 001 and Species 002 as one. Biology * Form: Carbon-based, but not Earthlike * Basic shape: Avian and Insectile * Consume: Emotion, memory, or thoughts * Natural Habitat: Cold and Wet * Procreation: Asexual (split off, cellular) * Reproductive Strategy: Reproduces once (as they die), many young * Reproductive Method: Eggs, (weird eggs) Lenses * Social: Gluttony & Honor Social Structure * A small group has great influence over a society of individuals. Technology & Place in the sector * Late industrial production levels by analogous methods (TL3). * Advanced Tech: Computing * Underdeveloped Tech: Robotics Notes: * A slowly developing species up until several hundred years ago when their civilization went from disconnected tribes to a single, vanguard rulership council * The council led this species to the stars and into TL4 very very quickly * Because the council is patient zero for the parasite species invasion * Council was originally a single tribe who had first contact with the parasite * Mostly wiped out by humans, the remainder too docile to fight back, now scattered throughout [[Acheron Rho|'Acheron Rho']] * They aren’t aware of the parasites that has infested them for generations * They feed off of psychic energy in the form of emotions and memories but also in raw form as Effort (This species can effectively induce stat burn on humans) * Gluttony induced by parasite species - they’re effectively being fattened up on emotion, etc. * Can manipulate emotions, change memories, groom a sentient for consumption. * Tend to overeat and leave a swath of emotionally stripped sentients in their wake. * Communicate via color-changes feather and carapace patterns, pheromones and small-scale memory / emotion consumption. (Puke memories into each others mouths) * Carry many eggs within themselves * The young are born capable, as the parents die in the birthing Species 003 - (Crystalline biomorphs) Biology * Procreation: Multi-stage life cycle * Larval Stage: ** Form: Liquiform ** Consume: Other complex lifeforms ** Natural Habitat: Oceanic * Adolescent Stage ** Form: Crystalline silicate structure ** Consume: radiation and light ** Natural Habitat: Oceanic/coastal regions, sea caves, etc. * Mature Stage ** Form: Silicon-based Lifeform (Mimics) ** Basic shape: determined by life in proximity, animals, plants, cars, buildings, or objects. Sympathetic Biomorphism ** Consume: Run on stored energy to complete life cycle ** Natural Habitat: Variable Life Cycle * Begin in liquid state, a cloud of acidic proteins that float around in the ocean absorbing life, dissolving it into biomass * At a certain point, they wash ashore, exposed to solar radiation, and crystallize as a formation of energy-absorbing spires. * Once their internal energy supplies mature they final stage begins - a psychic pulse imprints local biomorphic data and is mimicked by their structures. * Becomes mobile as hydrophobic sets in and eventually seeking out new bodies of water in which to dissolve and begin the cycle again. Lenses * Social: Joy & Curiosity Social Structure * A small group has authoritarian or totalitarian control over society. Technology & Place in the sector * Incongruous technology side-by-side (TL4, but varies by location) * Capable of detailed mimicry of existing tech in the transformation between adolescent and mature stages. Notes: * Their ships are developed as a result of Mimicking other species technology * Everything they “use ” is functionally an adult-stage member of their species * Harvest and tend to their young very carefully, tailoring them to the needs of the whole. * Humans think they farm crystals, don’t know that they are the crystals. * If you put one on a moon it would most likely form a rock structure, moving only to find a puddle to restart the cycle * Desperate explorers, hatred of the familiar * Deeply curious, especially about humans. * Cargo cult mentality - desperate to mimic anything new regardless of value with no understanding of underpinning purpose * Neuro-linked but not a hive-mind * Society built around purpose not identity, they have no context * They can be, it looks just like my dog. Or they can be like John Carpenter's The Thing, or The Fly. body horror crystalline things. Species 004 - (Hive species) Biology * Form: Earthlike carbon-based life * Mix of reptile & insectile qualities. * Consume: Light or other energy * Natural Habitat: Hot and dry (no liquid water) * Procreation: Sexual with numerous sexes * Reproductive Strategy: At-will, few offspring * Reproductive Method: Eggs or similar sealed incubator Sexual Polymorphism * Parent-form A ** Predominantly Insectile ** Builder-warrior biology ** Small sized * Parent-form B ** Predominantly Reptile ** Gatherer-feeder biology ** Large sized * Incubator-form ** Breeding sex, impregnated by material from A and B, carries and lay eggs ** Attracts parent-forms for impregnation Medium to large sized Lenses * Social: Journeying & Pride Social Structure * Caste system by sex, enforced and overseen by Incubation-forms. Technology & Place in the sector * Iron age technology (TL1) * Advanced Tech: Physics * Underdeveloped Tech: Genetics Notes: * Society is top-down with the Incubator-form class on the top and the parent-forms on the bottom, taterally. * Sun / Star “worshipers” * Very few incubation-forms, many reptilian-forms, the most insectile-forms * Humanity thinks of them as three different “animals” * The insect-forms are small, short-lived probably wasp-like and build hives, fight in swarm tactics to defend them * The reptile forms are much larger - akin to large herbivorous dinosaurs but with complex frill structures and no visible digestive system - probably easy to mistake for enormous plants. Sun bath all day and during the night return to the hives to feed the other forms at night * The incubator form is human-sized, immobile, served by the two parent-forms, but during incubation is attached to a massive egg-sac and immobile as a result. * Incubation is relatively rare and incubator-form births are usually a few eggs in a clutch - their species is pretty fragile, overall. * Parent-forms live a long time. Category:Lore